Greek
Promotional Poster
Created by	Patrick Sean Smith
Starring	Clark Duke Tiffany Dupont Scott Michael Foster Spencer Grammer Paul James Jake McDorman Amber Stevens Dilshad Vadsaria Jacob Zachar
Opening theme	"Our Time Now" (played on commercials, not during credits)
Composer	John Swihart
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2 (3rd in production)
No. of episodes	44 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lloyd Segan Shawn Piller
Running time	43 mins approx.
Original release
Network	ABC Family
Release	July 9, 2007 – present

Greek (promoted in faux-Greek alphabet as GRΣΣK) is an American, dramedy television series, which follows students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University (CRU) who partake in the school's Greek system. The show is centered around the relationships of two siblings, Casey and Rusty Cartwright. Casey is a sought-after, social, junior, and is part of the best house on campus. Rusty is a polymer science engineer who pledges a fraternity to shed his geeky image.

The show's plots often taken place within the confines of the fictional fraternities, Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sororities, Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒΖ) and Iota Kappa Iota (IKI). Throughout the course of the series, other non-Greek characters and situations are introduced, but they all tie into larger relationships with the Greeks.

In April 2007, ABC Family announced plans to begin airing Greek in July of that summer. The series premiered on July 9, 2007.^[2] The show depicts a school similar to a liberal arts school located in Ohio (i.e. Denison, Miami, etc.). Show creator Patrick Sean Smith began the show as a spec script of a show that he "really wanted to see," noticing a lack of shows in an hour-long format following a comedic take on college life. Citing "shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty" that "were pushing the envelope comedically in [sic] one-hour format," Smith saw the idea working for a younger set.^[3]

Greek became an example of ABC Family's desire to change their image to appeal to the emerging generation of viewers. The show's content is not traditionally considered "family friendly" due to its depiction of homosexuality, sex, and drinking. The producers and the network believe the friendships, which substitute for family during college, achieve the network's motto: A New Kind of Family.^[4] At the heart of the series is the sibling relationship between Casey and Rusty. The producers recognize that while it is a show about families, it is not necessarily for families, believing it is important that the authenticity of college life be portrayed, which includes the mature elements of that lifestyle. Even still, they work at making sure their depictions aren't gratuitous.^[5]

Filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California, they also film on location at the UCLA Campus in West Hollywood, another city in California within Los Angeles County. They've also filmed at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.^[6] The exterior and some interior shots were filmed in the historic West Adams District within Los Angeles. The house used in the pilot to establish the ZBZ residence is the same house used in the reality series Beauty and the Geek.^[5]

The first season was halted in September 2007 due to the Writers Guild of America strike and returned March 24, 2008, to a triple digit increase in ratings over the pilot's premiere ^[7]. On May 1, 2008, ABC Family renewed Greek for a second season, premiering August 26, 2008. The series was moved from the Tuesday lineup to Monday nights.^[8] Twelve more episodes were ordered for late spring 2009^[9] and aired beginning March 30. On January 31, 2009, it was announced that Greek would return for a third season, premiering on August 31, 2009.^[10]

The show airs in the US on ABC Family on Mondays 9/8 c, encores ran the following Friday during its First Chapter.^[11] The show also airs on BBC Three in the UK, pay-TV FOX8 in Australia, TV2 in New Zealand, MuchMusic in Canada, Virgin 17 in France, Universal Channel in Brazil, pay-TV network FOX in Germany, and on MTV Italia and MTV Greece in Italy and Greece, respectively. It will begin airing on RTL 5 in the Netherlands.

Greek airs in chapters on ABC Family (as correspond to their DVD releases), with Season 1 comprising the first and second chapter, Season 2 comprising the third and fourth chapter, and Season 3 set to begin the fifth chapter of the series.^[12][13]

The Pilot episode premiered on July, 9, 2007 in the US on ABC Family.

The first chapter comprises the first 10 episodes airing July 9, - September 10, 2007.^[14] The Chapter 1 DVD released on March 18, 2008.^[15]

Disrupted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the second chapter comprised the last 12 episodes of the first season, airing March 24 - June 9, 2008.^[14] The Chapter 2 DVD released on December 30, 2008.^[16]

The first season encompasses the first semester of Rusty, Calvin, Dale, and Rebecca's freshman year; Casey, Ashleigh, Cappie, and Evan's junior year; Frannie's senior year.

The second season premiered on August 26, 2008 in the US on ABC Family.

The third chapter comprises the first 10 episodes airing August 26 - October 28, 2008.^[17] The Chapter 3 DVD is schedule for release on August 18, 2009.^[18]

Chapter 3 encompasses the second semester of Rusty, Calvin, Dale, and Rebecca's freshman year; Casey, Ashleigh, Cappie, and Evan's junior year; Frannie's senior year. It also introduces Max as a graduate student.

The fourth Chapter comprised the last 12 episodes of the second season, airing March 30 - June 15, 2009.^[17] There is, as yet, no release date set for the Chapter 4 DVD.

Chapter 4 encompasses the first half of the first semester of Rusty, Calvin, Dale, and Rebecca's sophomore year; Casey, Ashleigh, Cappie, and Evan's senior year. It also introduces Jordan as a ZBZ pledge transferring to CRU during her sophomore year, and Andy as a Freshman pledge. Frannie attends her 5th year at CRU during this chapter, but the character exits the show in the last episode, "At World's End".

The third season premiers in the US on August 31, 2009.^[19]

• Clark Duke as Dale Kettlewell
• Scott Michael Foster as Cappie
• Paul James as Calvin Owens
• Jake McDorman as Evan Chambers
• Spencer Grammer as Casey Cartwright
• Amber Stevens as Ashleigh Howard
• Dilshad Vadsaria as Rebecca Logan
• Jacob Zachar as Rusty Cartwright
• Tiffany Dupont as Frannie Morgan (2007-2009)

Zeta Beta Zeta aka ZBZ, Zeta Beta

The best house on campus, and home to our main female characters: Casey, Ashleigh, Frannie, and Rebecca. ZBZ prefs Omega Chi, partnering with this fraternity for social events. The house is located at the end of Greek Row. They take a beating in their social standing after Jen K's expose on the CRU Greek System, and Frannie's formation of Iota Kappa Iota.

Omega Chi Delta aka Omega Chi, O Chi

Considered the best fraternity, and home to Evan and Calvin. The house honors its traditions, and pursues them with solemn formality. They're high on academics, networking, and athletics, and have traditionally prefed with ZBZ. When ZBZ turns them down, they pref with IKI instead.

Kappa Tau Gamma aka Kappa Tau, KT

CRU's ultimate party frat, and home to Cappie and Rusty. This fraternity is all about beer and girls. The house is in disrepair and often filthy, but it doesn't matter, because when the lights go down, that when the KT house shines, with legendary parties such as their notorious homecoming bash featuring Vesuvius, and the soon to be memorialized End of the World Party.

Iota Kappa Iota aka I Kap, IKI, Icky (phonetic pronunciation of IKI)

After Frannie looses the ZBZ presidency to Ashleigh, she gets Evan to fund the founding of IKI, and takes over as president, bringing many of the ZBZ girls with her. Rebecca initially follows Frannie to IKI to spy for ZBZ, but is soon found out and returns to ZBZ. Because they're not part of panhellenic at the beginning of the semester, they were able to skirt around the rules during rush. Unfortunately, this plan backfired, resulting in a less esteemed class of girls and leads Frannie to ultimately shut down the sorority, realizing it is never going to be ZBZ.

Tri Pi

Tri Pi is one of ZBZ's rival sororities, though the Tri Pi girls are known to be hardcore party girls, often attending KT functions. The entire sorority sent Cappie a crush basket. As ZBZ begins to fall out of favor, the Tri Pi's are ready to step in to take their place.

Lambda Sigma Omega aka Lambda Sig

A jock fraternity who make up the vast majority of the school's athletic teams. Lambda Sig is the second most popular fraternity after Omega Chi. When it comes time to establish which fraternity ZBZ is going to pref with, they get tired of waiting for O Chi to make up their mind (and thus define them), and decide to pref with the Lambda Sig's instead.

Psi Phi Pi

A fraternity full of geeks (as noted by their name, phonetically sounding like sci-fi). Lizzie arranges a ZBZ mixer with this fraternity, and it is up to Ashleigh to get them out of it, only she falls for their social chair Jason, until Casey points out he's Ashleigh's ex-boyfriend in a nerd suit.

Gamma Psi Alpha

This sorority was the main competition for ZBZ during Greek Week. One of their sisters taunted Rebecca relentlessly, which led Rebecca to attack her during one of the events.

Mu Gamma Sig

A sorority known to recruit heavier girls, causing Frannie to "mistakenly" call them the Mu Gamma Pig's during the Omega Chi Sweetheart race.

Pi Epsilon Gamma

A metrosexual fraternity, known for stimulating debate concerning the best hair product.

Theta Pi Gamma

A Jewish fraternity.

Alpha Epsilon Omega

Terms or phrases used within the show, and defined within the show’s context.

Fraternities

A group of young men on a college campus who select to live communally with each other throughout college, and align themselves with a national organization, though there are independent fraternities as well. The organizations are often steeped in traditions, creating strong bonds that last a lifetime, known collectively as brotherhood.

Fraternities are semi self-governed. They are subject to their national organization, the Interfraternity Council (IFC), and the university who all work in partnership with each other to maintain predetermined standard levels, and to enact disciplinary measures.

Members of a fraternity must pay monthly dues to participate.

Sororities

Similar to fraternities, sororities are for young women, and are under the auspices of Pan-Hellenic and not IFC.

Pan-Hellenic is known to hold sororities to higher standards than IFC do their fraternities, and their disciplinary actions are harsher. (e.g. while the Kappa Tau’s social calendar was suspended for two weeks when sabotage to a rival fraternity/sororities’ float was discovered, the president of Zeta Beta Zeta, who was also involved in the incident, faced expulsion)

Greek system

Sororities and fraternities are named after letters from the Greek alphabet. The official organization of fraternity and sorority houses on a school’s campus is considered the Greek system.

Houses

Fraternity and sororities are communal living homes, providing students with an alternative to on-campus or off-campus housing: while the houses are on campus, they are under a separate governance system (see fraternities above).

Houses not only refer to the physical home in which the students live, but is a synonym for their fraternity as well. (e.g. the KT House is Rusty’s house, aka fraternity)

Greek row

The portion of a school’s campus, where the Greek Houses are located.

Chapter

Most fraternities and sororities are part of a larger, national organization that considers the local house on an individual campus a chapter house. (e.g. Zeta Beta Zeta is considered the CRU Chapter of ZBZ Nationals)

Rush

A series of events where perspective pledges have an opportunity to see the various fraternity or sorority houses on campus, meet their prospective brothers or sisters, and submit an application, often accompanied with a letter of reference. It’s a competitive process within the best houses, as the sororities and fraternities select who they will offer a bid to.

Rush is organized and overseen by each individual house, under the leadership of the rush chair.

Parties are not permitted during rush, though Kappa Tau is known to throw an underground party as part of their bid selection process.

Bid

A bid can be a formal or an informal invitation for a rushie to join a particular sorority or fraternity as a pledge; however, regardless of how formal or informal the invitation is, the only way a rushie may pledge a sorority or fraternity is by being offered a bid.

Ding

The opposite of a bid, is a ding, when the sorority or fraternity determines they do not want the particular rushie to pledge their house.

Legacy

The son or daughter of a previously active brother or sister of a fraternity or sorority is a legacy. Legacies are guaranteed a bid, even if the legacy doesn’t meet the standards set forth by a particular house.

Pledge

If a sorority or fraternity offers a bid to a rushie, and it’s accepted, this person becomes a pledge. A person is a pledge for the entire first year he/she is part of a fraternity or sorority. During this time they learn about the rules and traditions of Greek life both generally and specific to their house, under the leadership of the pledge educator, who often organizes activities the pledges are required to participate in.

Pledges are not permitted to live within the house, or take on leadership responsibilities.

Pledges are often called upon to perform duties and tasks that their brothers and sisters do not want to do; they are purposefully put into humiliating circumstances or otherwise hazed. It’s understood that a pledge is required to do what any brother or sister asks him/her to do. (e.g. Rusty is dressed up in a French maid’s outfit and serves his brothers Jell-O shots from a tray)

Pledge Class

A group of pledges who pledge the same fraternity or sorority at the same time. Often a leader is elected among them, and he/she is known as the Pledge Class President.

Pledge Week

The first week of classes is Pledge Week, when the pledges are required to be at the beck and call of their houses. Hazing and pledge activities often begin this week. It accumulates in the Big/Little Ceremony in which a pledge’s big brother or big sister is assigned/revealed.

Hell Week

The last week of the pledging cycle, when the houses test the knowledge and loyalty of their pledges through a series of trials, often physically painful especially in the case of fraternities. Pledges face the final possibility of being dropped from their fraternity or sorority.

Active

After Hell Week, a pledge becomes an active member of the fraternity or sorority they’ve pledged, and are therefore known as Actives.

Brother/sister

Both active and former members are known as “brothers” if it’s a fraternity, or “sisters” if it’s a sorority.

Big/littles

Each pledge is assigned to an active, and this person becomes either their big brother or big sister, and the pledge becomes the active’s little brother or little sister. The big/little relationship continues passed the pledging stage, and often results in lifelong friendships.

Great big/little relationships are also recognized. (e.g. Frannie is Casey’s big sister, Casey is Rebecca’s big sister, so therefore, Frannie is Rebecca’s great big sister)

Social calendar

A sorority or fraternity's calendar of events, coordinated with the university’s activity calendar. It includes all manner of social activities, including, but not limited to: parties, date nights, balls, games, homecoming, tailgate, etc.

The social calendar is coordinated under the leadership of the social chair.

Pref

Short for preference or prefer, Pref is an arrangement between one fraternity and one sorority who commit to each other’s social calendar, and are expected to support each other during competitions. The sorority sisters often date the fraternity brothers their house Pref’s with, though it’s not required.

The sorority campaigns a fraternity house for their acceptance to Pref with them.

Lavaliere

A pendant given to a sorority sister by her significant other, representing a pre-pre-engagement commitment. If her significant other is a fraternity brother, the pendant represents his fraternity’s letters, and is given to her during a lawn ceremony with his brothers and her sisters in attendance. The sorority sister announces her lavaliering to the house during a candle passing ceremony prior to the lawn ceremony.

If the sister’s significant other is not a Greek, her letters are on the pendant presented and not the boyfriend's. (e.g. when Max lavaliered Casey, he presented her with a necklace with ZBZ on it)

Candle Ceremony

A ceremony within a sorority house, in which specific forms of news is shared with the sisterhood-at-large. The sister who has news to share, will secretly place a decorative candle out in a conspicuous place. After the next house meeting, the sisters will gather in a circle, and the lit candle is passed around until the sister with news to share blows it out. However many times the candle goes around the circle determines what news is shared. (e.g. at ZBZ: once around is friendship, twice is lavaliere, three times is pinning, four times is engagement)

Philanthropy (aka Philanthropy Hours)

All fraternities and sororities are required to participate in some level of social service, called philanthropy or philanthropy hours, often determined by Nationals, and overseen by the house's philanthropy chair for compliance.

Some fraternities or sororities consider themselves service houses, and philanthropy is their purpose in existing. Other houses see philanthropy as an annoyance that gets in the way of the social calendar.

• The Plain White T's "Our Time Now" played during commercials advertising Greek during the show’s first chapter promotional run. The band has appeared in numerous Greek episodes, making their debut in the season one episode, "The Rusty Nail". They appeared in subsequent episodes "Friday Night Frights", "A New Normal", and "See You Next Time Sisters"^[20]. The show incorporated some members of the band as KT brothers in the episode "The Great Cappie". The Chapter Two DVD features a video for the band’s song, "Natural Disaster", which features Tiffany Dupont.

• The Dollyrots appeared in the season one episode, "Multiple Choice", playing “Because I’m Awesome”.^[20]

• Marié Digby performs “Better Off Alone” in the penultimate season 1 episode, "Barely Legal".^[20]
• American Bang performs two songs in the season 1 finale, "Spring Broke": “Wild and Young”, and “Move to the Music”.^[20]

• The War Tapes are the featured band during the season 2 finale, "At World’s End", playing, “Always Falling”, and “Dreaming of You”.^[21]

Greek often calls out pop culture references related to their cast or guest stars.

• In season one, episode three, “The Rusty Nail”, Evan and Casey mention watching Frasier. Frasier starred Kelsey Grammer, Spencer Grammer’s famous father.

• In season one, episode nine, “Depth Perception”, Jen K calls her roommate lonelygirl15, referencing Jessica Rose’s noted character.

• Also in "Depth Perception", Cappie's file number in the psych experiment is "8675309", the title of the 1980s song performed by Tommy Tutone

• In season one, episode twelve, “The Great Cappie”, Ashleigh is telling Dean Bowman how she considers Ferris Bueller's Day Off one of the best films of her generation. Alan Ruck, who plays Dean Bowman, played Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller.

• In season one, episode twelve, “The Great Cappie”, a nameless KT brother, played by Tom Higgenson, is mentioned as having a band. In real life, Tom is the lead singer for The Plain White T's, who've made numerous appearances on the show.

• In season one, episode nineteen, “No Campus for Old Rules”, another Ferris Bueller reference is made when Dean Bowman calls his companion Sloan. Sloan was Ferris’ love interest in the movie, whom Cameron was also in love with.

• In season two, episode twelve, “From Rushing with Love”, the ZBZ girls are putting on a skit based on the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Casey mentions how cute the character of Kostas was. Kostas was portrayed by Michael Rady in the film.

In the United Kingdom, after each episode airs a special behind the scenes episode entitled Greek Uncovered, which can be found on the BBC iPlayer and on BBC Three.^[22] In the Australian iTunes store, each week, a new episode (to Australia) will appear, after it is aired on FOX8.

Greek has received a score of 62 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic.^[23] In a review released soon after the premiere of the show, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the show "light-hearted fun" and "authentic" while the New York Times claimed that Greek "captures the spirit of the hedge-fund age like nothing else."^[24][25] Other critics did not find the drama as authentic, with Elizabeth Fox of the Philadelphia Inquirer criticizing the show's predictability and lack of originality as another "teenage soap opera."^[26] Other reviews were middling, calling the writing of the show acceptable and praising the strength of the cast.^[27]

Members of the real life Greek community have claimed that Greek's depiction of fraternity and sorority life is stereotypical.^[28] USC banned the show from filming on their campus, in reaction to the promotional poster featuring the Greek logo over a red cup, since the cup is often used to symbolize alcoholic consumption during parties. However, upon viewing the pilot episode they held off on sending a letter to ABC Family, complaining about the depiction of the Greek System, when they realized there was more to the show than just parties.^[29] Others recognize it as a hyperbolic representation of "tamer, more modest" Greek life.^[30]

The show has been noted by LGBT activists for the character of Calvin, a gay fraternity brother, who struggles with the stereotyping and homophobia that coming out of the closet entails. Critics have praised the character's "three dimensionality."^[3][31]

In 2008 GLAAD nominated Greek for an Outstanding Drama Series award, and in 2009 they nominated the show in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Actor Paul James was nominated for a 2009 Image Award as Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series.^[32]

The rating score for Greek's pilot episode was 1.1.^[33], and chapter 2 ended with 1.3 viewers.^[34]

Chapter 3 saw a ratings spike, premiering to 1.6 viewers, a 78% increase, doubling and tripling their ratings in all demographics, marked a network high for male viewers, and was the 2nd most watched cable show with females age 12-34. Greek also appeared on the list of top ten downloads on iTunes.^[5][7]

Chapter 4 premiered much lower, with a .9 rating,^[35] and ended with a .7.^[36]

• Official website
• Template:Myspace
• Greek at IMDb
• Greek Uncovered at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Greek Speak Podcast